I didn’t quite pay attention when booking, so I was to take this knackered old elephant from Vilnius to Kaišiadorys where I am now to wait for the train from …Vilnius. I think they sold this to me because first class was already sold out on that second train. Also, we passed through here on the way up already but didn’t stop.

Anyway, I didn’t do this on purpose. Honest.

I have fifty minutes and could have walked into town – they have a pretty church, apparently – but I had a hunch I might see this: train 080Ч, Kaliningrad – St. Petersburg on its transit through Lithuania.

Sadly the sun is all wrong and there are noise barriers on the other side of the tracks, so these shady snapshots will have to do.

Oh good: The four hour trip to Klaipėda isn’t on a Pesa regional train set.

They weren’t joking when they claimed it was sold out, though. Pretty much every seat is taken. For me they only had a backwards facing aisle seat left. Ah well. At least they replaced the Soviet seats with something quite comfy here in second class. (There also is third.)

Klaipėda, where the weather is definitely more late winter.

Now I have to just ge… hang on.

“Due to late arrival, your ferry departs on 16/03 at 03:00hrs.”

That was supposed to be midnight. This is going to be a long evening.

Pub?

Sea days are great.

Slept until breakfast, which started at ten due to the late departure (I think we left 5:30). Then slept some more. At two I thought I should probably get up and walk around a bit. Decided against it and slept until half past three. Now some coffee. Probably will have a nap after.

This ship, M/V Nils Dacke (the third ship of this name), definitely isn’t a fancy cruise ferry. The communal area is very small. Buffet restaurant and tiny duty free shop are grouped around the reception desk with a bunch of seats around. That’s it. Cabins are quite spacious, though. Thirty years old and you can see it.

An honest work horse. Love it.

Good morning! Definitely Scandinavia.

My original idea was to loop through Sweden for a day but I will aim for Denmark in a more or less straight line instead. It won’t be the normal route, though, because of course not.

You can also take a train west to Kalundborg from here where you can get a ferry to the island of Samsø where you can get a ferry to Aarhus.

Unfortunately, the ferries go from different sides of the island and there is no bus in winter. Which would be fine – it is a walk of a mere two hours – but it is getting too late for more shenanigans.

I am not aware of anywhere that shows you the formation of Danish trains in advance, but the station boards on https://mittog.dk do (if you click on a train), so you can at least have an educated guess when planning.

(This is also really useful to see what they came up with for the Copenhagen – Hamburg ECs today which are a real mess right now.)

This was the second driver seeing me in a protected crossing and just keeping on driving forcing me to stop – one at a zebra crossing and one turning left at a light.

I don’t remember Denmark being like that. Be careful in Fredericia, people!